Integrating child mental health responses into recovery, development, and peacebuilding in fragile and conflict affected settings

Georgia B Dominguez; Theresa S Betancourt; Lindsay Stark; Abdulai Jawo Bah; Rajeev Seth; Joseph Haddad; Zulfiqar A Bhutta

doi:10.1136/bmj-2025-086044

Integrating child mental health responses into recovery, development, and peacebuilding in fragile and conflict affected settings

BMJ. 2026 Feb 24:392:e086044. doi: 10.1136/bmj-2025-086044.

Authors

Georgia B Dominguez¹, Theresa S Betancourt², Lindsay Stark³, Abdulai Jawo Bah², Rajeev Seth⁴, Joseph Haddad⁵, Zulfiqar A Bhutta^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Global Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
² School of Social Work, Boston College, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Center for Violence and Injury Prevention, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA.
⁴ Bal Umang Drishya Sanstha India, New Delhi, India.
⁵ International Pediatric Association, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁶ Institute for Global Health and Development, Aga Khan University, South Central Asia, East Africa, and UK.

Abstract

Zulfiqar A Bhutta and colleagues call for renewed global commitments and funding mechanisms to build on promising initiatives to protect children affected by armed conflict